2 papers Art history visual analysis (5-7 pages)
Reborn0804
baroque_french1.pptART HISTORY 132
Baroque: French
Nicolas Poussin
(1595-1665)
biography: family origin lower nobility bankrupted by wars
- lived almost entire life in Rome
- returns to Paris at end of life
- patrons:
- Barberini (Catholic Cardinal)
- FR King Louis XIII
- strengthened royal authority
- established FR Academy
- highly finished style
- historical/mythological themes
- moralistic tone
- aesthetic: classicizing
- “disegno” technical perfection of drawing
- Raphael’s color scheme
- narrative: easily legible
- gestures
- facial expressions
- poses
Poussin
- Holy Family (c. 1650)
- style: classicizing
- figures: idealized (see Raphael)
- perspective: linear & aerial
- compositions: stable
- geometric recession
- verticals/horizontals at right angles
- color: localized areas of primaries
- light/shadow: chiaroscuro
- iconography:
- apple/wisdom/fate
- staircase/ascension
(Left) RAPHAEL’s High Renaissance Madonna of the Meadow (c. 1500)
vs.
(right) detail in POUSSIN’s FR Baroque Holy Family on the Steps (c. 1650)
Poussin’s Abduction of the Sabine Women
(c. 1625)
Poussin
- Midas and Bacchus (1625)
- subject: Humanistic
- figures: Classical Greek prototypes
- Bacchus Apollo Belvedere
- composition: Renaissance appropriation
- Perugino’s Delivery of the Keys
- Titian’s Bacchanal
- color: Venetian warm, golden tonality
- light/shadow: Titian’s shifting effects
- narrative: minimizes actions & facial expressions
(Left) Classical Greek Apollo Belvedere (late 4th century BC)
vs.
(right) detail from POUSSIN’s FR Baroque Midas and Bacchus (1625)
(Left) Detail from POUSSIN’s French Baroque Midas and Bacchus (1625) vs.
PERUGINO’s Early Renaissance Delivery of the Keys (c. 1475)
from Sistine Chapel
TITIAN’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchanal (c. 1525)
vs.
POUSSIN’s French Baroque Midas and Bacchus (c. 1625)
Georges de La Tour
(1593-1652)
- Repentant Magdalen (c. 1650)
- aesthetic: realist tendency
- theme: penance & “vanitas”
- setting: simplified (see Council of Trent/Caravaggio)
- figure: geometric simplicity
- compare to Early Renaissance
- composition: dynamic diagonal thrust
- color: muted; narrow range of browns
- light/shadow: dramatic
- “contre jour”
- variation of Caravaggio’s use of “tenebrism”
- silhouette effect
- figure in front of light source (i.e., candle)
- iconography: “memento mori”
- skull as reminder of death
La Tour
- Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (1650)
- aesthetic: realist
- figures: geometric; analytical
- composition: dynamic
- figures aligned diagonally
- narrative carried along by gaze & gesture
- re: Caravaggio’s Entombment
- color: muted tonalities
- light/shadow: “conte jour”
(Left) LA TOUR’s FR Baroque Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
(c. 1650) vs.
(right) CARAVAGGIO’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600)
Le Nain
- Peasant Family (c. 1650)
- subject: group portrait
- theme: “genre” scene (daily life)
- meaning: dignity of hardship
- figures: peasants
- simplicity & seriousness
- see Velazquez Water Carrier
- composition: stable
- frieze-like
- seemingly random placement figures
- color: muted earth tones
- light/shadow: “contre jour”
- iconography: religious allegory
- Eucharist (wine & bread)
Le Nain’s Smokers
(1643)
CALLOT’s The Miseries of War
(c. 1625)
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 2: POUSSIN. Self-Portrait (c. 1650), Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Slide 3: POUSSIN, Nicholas. Midas and Bacchus (1625), Oil on canvas, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
- Slide 4: Titian’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchanal (c. 1525) vs. Poussin’s French Baroque Midas & Bacchus (c. 1625)
- Slide 5: Comparison between (left) Classical Greek Apollo Belvedere (late 4th century BC); and (right) detail of Midas from POUSSIN’s French Baroque Midas and Bacchus (1625).
- Slide 6: (Left) central figures from POUSSIN’s French Baroque Midas and Bacchus (1625); and (right) PERUGINO’s Early Renaissance Delivery of the Keys (c. 1475) in the Sistine Chapel
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 7: POUSSIN. The Rape of the Sabine Women (c. 1635), Oil on canvas, 60 7/8 x 82 5/8 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York .
- Slide 8: POUSSIN. Holy Family on the Steps (c. 1650), Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Slide 9: (Left) RAPHAEL’s High Renaissance Madonna of the Meadow (c. 1500); and (right) detail of Madonna, Christ Child and St. John the Baptist in POUSSIN’s French Baroque Holy Family on the Steps (c. 1650).
- Slide 10: LA TOUR. Repentant Magdalen (c. 1640), Oil on canvas, 44 1/2 x 36 1/2 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Slide 11: LA TOUR. Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (c. 1650), Oil on canvas, 167 x 130 cm., Musée du Louvre, Paris.
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 12: (Left) LA TOUR’s French Baroque Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (c. 1640); and (right) CARAVAGGIO’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600).
- Slide 13: LE NAIN. Peasant Family (c. 1640), Oil on canvas, 44 1/2 x 62 1/2”, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Slide 14: Details in LE NAIN’s Peasant Family.
- Slide 15: LE NAIN. Smokers in an Interior (1643), Oil on canvas, 117 x 137 cm., Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Slide 16: CALLOT. “Hanging Tree” from The Miseries of War (1629-33), etching, 3 ¾ x 7 ¼ in., Private Collection.
